Entry One

My name is Alyssa Clevenger and my fiancé and dream man is Neil Shepherd. Neil is twenty-four years old and is from Warsaw, IN. I am nineteen years old and born and raised in the small town of Rochester, IN. Neil and I met in April of 2012 when he was hired as an engineer to work for my parents.  My parents own two small businesses Athens Archery and Lyntech Engineering. Although we met in 2012 we did not interact much, he was just my "eye candy." He didn't know it at the time but I referred to him as “Sexy Neil.” The summer after we met I had taken all of my friends out to my parents’ business for "show and tell." Although we tried pretending like I was showing them my new bow all of the giggles and smiles made it obvious that was not the case. I never flirted with Neil or went out of my way to talk to him but I did intentionally walk by his office to catch glimpses of him; he was strictly eye candy.

          Throughout the next year Neil came to my house with my step-dad from time to time. He came to euchre night, had dinner at our house when he worked late, and came for a few family gatherings. I love to hula hoop and took hoop dance classes.  I spent many hours hula hooping. During a couple of family birthday parties Neil participated in hula hooping contests with my brothers, my sisters, and I.  We still didn't interact much, not until March of 2013. In March, we had a big snow storm and school was cancelled.  My parents were in Fort Wayne with my little sister.  Neil stopped by the house during his lunch break with my younger brother, Chad.  Chad said Neil wanted to stop by and see if we needed anything.  I was in the shower but my sister and Neil talked for a while. While they were talking a thought popped into her head and she told him, "Alyssa is perfect for you," which confirmed what he had already been thinking.  When I got out of the shower and saw Alli and Neil talking around the corner I quickly threw some clothes on and headed to the kitchen but by the time I walked in the room he and Chad were headed out the door. My first thought was that Alli and Sexy Neil would end up together, because she thought he was attractive as well, but before I could say anything Alli declared that Neil and I are perfect for each other.  I laughed it off but still had him on my mind

 The next day I realized I had to run an errand after school and I wanted someone to go with me.  My parents were still with my sister in Fort Wayne, my other siblings had to work, and all of my friends were busy. I had no one else to turn to but my parents’ employees and of course Neil would be my number one pick. I texted my step-dad, Jason, and asked for Neil's number and sent him a text. The text went something along the lines of "Hey Neil, it’s Alyssa, I have to run an errand to Tick Tock Trophy Shop do you want to come with me? I need help picking out trophies for a pageant. Let me know." He wanted to go and so I met him afterschool at Lyntech Engineering and we went.  What I didn’t know at the time was that Neil had been mentioning me around work.  When I texted him, he told Pam, the office manager, about me inviting him to the trophy shop and that it was a sign that we were meant to be. When we finished picking out trophies it was dinner time so we went to the local café to grab a bite to eat; our very first dinner date.

We didn't talk for a week after that. It was about mid- March and Neil and Jason had worked really late so Jason told him he could crash on the couch at our house so he didn’t have to drive home.  I got a text at midnight from Neil saying, “you should come down stairs and watch a movie with Jason and I." We watched a movie and Jason fell asleep. Neil and I stayed up all night talking and getting to know each other. We jokingly planned every aspect of our future. We laughed and talked until early the next morning when he left for work and I went to school, extremely tired. From then on, we were nearly inseparable. We went bass fishing, bow fishing, cruising, and shopping.  Our relationship felt like one big date. We made everything fun. We were only apart for work, school, and sleep.

On April 30th, I was scheduled to have surgery on my right hip. Neil was by my side in the waiting room, while they put in my IV, and outside waiting to take care of me when surgery was over. During my surgery Neil watched the clock anxiously waiting with my mom on the doctor to return with an update on how the surgery went.  The surgery was scheduled to take four hours.  Four-and-a-half hours passed and Neil started to worry. By the time five hours passed, he was nauseous.  At that moment Neil knew that even though we hadn’t dated long he had fallen in love with me and that he didn’t ever want to be without me. After the surgery I was in extreme pain for two weeks and needed assistance sitting, standing, and getting up and down our steps. Neil was there by my side ready to meet my every need. He propped my leg up, brought me ice, food and medicine. He carried me up and down the stairs and everywhere else my crutches couldn’t take me. Realizing how big Neil's heart is and watching him care for me made it clear I loved him too. 

I graduated the first weekend of June and left two days later for a ten week internship at the church camp I went to growing up. Neil and I did not what to expect but we knew we could make it through anything no matter how difficult. People told us that absence makes the heart grow fonder or wander.  It was difficult falling in love and then suddenly being apart.  We talked as much as we could but only got to see each other three times for just a few hours.  It was still a young relationship and we had good days and bad days.  During one of our difficult days my mom suggested when I return Neil and I should go on a road trip. We needed to keep that fun, spontaneous relationship we had before I left. We counted down the days until my return in August.  Neil and my mom picked me up from camp and a few days later we left on our trip. While we were apart our hearts had grown fonder and we knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. Our relationship was as if I had never left. We had a blast driving all over in his Mercedes. We spent five days together traveling from Indiana to the Mall of America to Amnicon Falls to Traverse City and back to Indiana. We did not get engaged on this trip but we did commit to and purchase wedding straws for our wedding reception. However, Neil later told me he regretted not buying a ring and bringing it on the trip. He did not want to wait any longer to be married.

After returning from our road trip I started a new job as the middle school cheerleading coach, and began taking online classes while interning for my church.  Neil continued to work for my parents and our relationship continued to grow stronger.

 In October, Neil and I bought 12.7 acres of woods in my home town so we could build a house with the intentions of being married in June. We began cutting down trees and clearing for the drive way and foundation.  We worked every night after work cutting and stacking wood.  By November, we were pouring concrete. On November 7^th, Neil called and told me to meet him out at the property at 5:30.  The concrete foundation had just been poured so we took several photos in front of what would soon be our home. He said he wanted to get the rest of the wood stacked and then we could do whatever I wanted the rest of the evening. I decided on a pizza and board game night with my family. I stacked my pile of wood while Neil stacked his. I finally got to the bottom of my stack where I saw a thin cut log engraved with "November 7th, 2013" written below the date was “Will you marry me?" As I was reading the log, Neil got down on one knee with the ring and asked me to marry him. We were so excited.  We spent the rest of the evening sharing our engagement news with family and friends. 

Neil and I shared our first winter together going back and forth to each other’s houses for the holidays. We are still building our house. We are doing the majority of the construction ourselves so most evenings you will find us there working on our home.  If all continues to go well the house should be complete by April, although we will not move into it until after we get married in June.

Currently, we are working, building a house, planning a wedding, balancing dating life with family time, and continually growing together in our relationship with God. We will be married in Logansport, IN.  Our wedding will be outdoors in a pasture and our reception will be in a barn. Our rustic theme fits both of our personalities well and we are very excited for our wedding on June 14th and even more excited about our marriage.

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